Beyond a come-hither label

Whether the product is beer, cars, shampoo, tobacco or virtually anything but diapers or dog food, American marketers have long banked on one truism: Sex sells.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that someone is now selling a wine named Seduction ... packaged in a translucent, burgundy-colored organza sack so that buyers will -- as its creator, Bart O’Brien, puts it -- “have the pleasure of undressing it.”

Seduction isn’t the first wine to use a sexual come-on as a sales tool. Michigan winemaker Larry Mawby sells a pink sparkler named Sex, and California vintners sell Marilyn Merlot and Cleavage Creek.

What makes Seduction unusual is its intended audience: O’Brien is making, packaging and marketing the wine specifically for women, a demographic group that he’s convinced is untapped and growing rapidly.

Women are drinking more wine these days, and O’Brien is not alone in trying to capitalize on that trend. I just finished reading the 2003 book, “Wine for Women” by Leslie Sbrocco, which offers advice on “buying, pairing and sharing wine” that is presumably different in significant ways than the advice Sbrocco would offer men.

I am not one of those politically correct types who insist there is no difference between men and women. There are some differences -- important differences -- and as the French say, “Vive la difference.”

But I’m wary of those who purport to see differences in areas that are essentially gender neutral. Such an approach often results in turning off the very people one is trying to attract -- or in O’Brien’s case, to seduce.

O’Brien, 49, who made his money running computer software companies, bought 40 acres in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley five years ago, renamed it O’Brien Family Vineyard and announced that he was going to make a $28 Bordeaux blend aimed at women.

“Folks in Napa said I was absolutely wrong,” he told me over lunch recently. “They said women drink only ... white wine, cheap white wine that they buy in the grocery store.”

But O’Brien, who also markets a Chardonnay and a Merlot under the O’Brien Family Vineyard label (without the Seduction name), said his personal observations and his market research supported his plan for Seduction.

“Women’s tastes are shifting from white to red wine -- good red wine,” he says. “That’s part of the larger demographic trend of women coming into power and asserting themselves in the workplace ... powerful women drinking powerful wines.”

O’Brien may be on to something. Several market studies show that more women than men now buy wine, and more women than men drink wine regularly -- 11% more, according to a national consumer survey last year by Simmons Market Research Bureau. Although Simmons found that women are still 7% less likely than men to drink red wine -- and 17% more likely to drink white wine -- about half the women surveyed do regularly drink red wine.

Several wine merchants have told me they’ve noticed an increase in the last two or three years in the number of women buying wine, especially good red wine (although not the very high-end, collectible wines).

“But wine marketing has always been, and still is, very masculine,” O’Brien says. “It’s designed to appeal to men who buy wine to take it back to the cave and hoard it until another man comes along who’s worthy of sharing the bottle, and brings his own bottle.

“Women buy wine to share right now,” he says. “They use it as a tool to evoke mood with friends and family.

“There are independent, powerful, feminine women out there, and we have to figure out how to create a wine to please them and even to symbolize them.”

How?

“First and foremost,” he says, “it has to be a damn good wine, not something thin or fruity but a full-bodied wine, with smooth, silky tannins.”

O’Brien settled on a Bordeaux blend to achieve that, but he won’t say what the blend is -- how much Cabernet Sauvignon, how much Cabernet Franc or Merlot or Petit Verdot or ....

“Keeping that secret adds to the feminine mystique,” he says. “It appeals to more women that way.”

That’s where O’Brien began to lose me. I know a lot of women who love wine, but I don’t see many of them -- or many of my male friends either, for that matter -- buying a bottle of wine so they can sit around a dinner table, trying to guess its encepage.

O’Brien’s packaging seems even more problematic -- and more patronizing.

“Women have a better sense of the visual aesthetic than men do,” he says. “How a bottle looks is important to them. They think the care taken (or not) in the design of the package and the label indicates the care taken (or not) in the making of the wine inside.”

He may be right -- in some cases. But when I showed his “all dressed up and ready to party” bagged bottle and repeated his “undress it” sales pitch to my wife -- who is just the sort of strong, independent, feminine, red wine-loving woman that Seduction is aimed at -- she burst into laughter and said, “Why would I serve anyone a wine that looks like it came from Victoria’s Secret?”

The label on Seduction is black, with a large, gold “O” (for O’Brien) and, beneath it, in red, the word “Seduction.” On the back of the bottle are the words, “Romance of the heart, passion of the soul. A voluptuous wine with sensual flavors and a velvet kiss. Enjoy in good company.”

O’Brien says that when a woman “walks into a room with a bottle of Seduction, that’s a statement of who she is.”

But what is that statement?

Over the last several weeks, I’ve shown the wine and explained O’Brien’s philosophy to -- and drunk the wine with -- nine professional, wine-loving, fun-loving women, ages 35 to 53. Every one of them was put off by his approach and his packaging. All said it was too overt, too crude -- and much more likely to appeal to men than to women.

Like so many men, they unanimously agreed, O’Brien seems to have confused what he knows men like with what he thinks women (should) like.

Although O’Brien says that he’s marketing the wine as “romance, not sex,” several of my women friends said the big “O” on the label made them think of either orgasm or of the erotic novel “Story of O,” neither of which made them want to buy or drink (or be seen with) the wine.

Another said, “If I served this wine to a guy, I’m sure he’d think I was saying I wanted to sleep with him; I wouldn’t serve it unless I already was sleeping with him.”

Yet another said, “Bringing that bottle to dinner with a guy or serving it to him at your house would be like carrying condoms in a plastic, see-through purse.”

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It has its fans

Not everyone is so critical, of course.

Mary Lynn Slattery, co-proprietor of VinoVenue, a combination wine bar, wine shop and tasting room in San Francisco, said she thought O’Brien’s marketing concept was “fabulous.” She bought six or eight cases of the first (2002) vintage and sold out in two weeks, “mostly because of the packaging, which really seduced people, “ she said.

VinoVenue is typical of the kinds of places O’Brien is selling Seduction -- women-owned restaurants and wine stores, women’s business groups, day spas and breast cancer charity events, among other venues, both woman-friendly and more universal in nature.

And how does Seduction taste? Reports among my women friends ranged from “mediocre” to “I like it.” No one loved it. One said, “It sure doesn’t make me want to rip my clothes off.”

Me? I liked the wine, but I sure didn’t love it. Yes, it’s smooth and full-bodied, but it wasn’t so good or so special that I wanted to rush out and buy another bottle -- or rip my clothes off.

O’Brien released 450 cases of the 2002 vintage last August, and he says it sold out in three months. About 2,000 cases of the 2003 vintage were released last week to take advantage of Valentine’s Day. The wine is available at several local wine stores and restaurants.

“It’s the perfect, romantic, Valentine wine,” O’Brien says. “It’s also a perfect by-the-glass wine any night. You know, the sommelier approaches your table and says, ‘Would you like to start your evening with some Seduction?’ You ask to see the label, and then you have the pleasure of undressing it and then.... “

Not at my table.

Sbrocco, the author of “Wine for Women,” seems about as guilty as O’Brien of letting her eagerness to capitalize on women’s burgeoning interest in wine lead her to silly, patronizing commentary.

Her book is studded with language that, were I a woman, I’d find insulting and condescending.

For the most part, the book is a solid, eminently readable introductory guide to wine for neophytes, regardless of gender. What makes it “Wine for Women”? One explanation is that it quotes a lot of women -- which is perfectly appropriate. But Sbrocco also repeatedly compares specific wine varietals to articles of clothing, as if women were too ignorant or too stupid to understand wine on its own terms.

Thus, Chardonnay is popular largely because of its versatility, “just like those black pants that come in many fabrics and styles.” Sauvignon Blanc is like “a crisp white cotton [shirt].” Pinot Noir is satin. Merlot is “nothing short of vinous cashmere.” Zinfandel is “black leather pants.” Cabernet Sauvignon is a “wine wardrobe essential,” the equivalent of an “all-purpose” black suit. Dessert wines are pajamas.

When I spoke with Sbrocco last week, she said she used the fashion analogies “to focus on things relevant to women’s daily lives.”

When she tired of making fashion comparisons in her book -- and she clearly didn’t tire of them nearly as quickly as I did -- Sbrocco took what I think of as the supermarket tabloid approach to women readers and began likening wines to movie stars.

“Chenin Blanc is Audrey Hepburn ... sleek, slender and enchanting.”

“Viognier is a vixen, a husky throated, curvaceous, and ever so seductive Kathleen Turner of a wine.”

Beaujolais is Ray Romano, “friendly and fun ... something more there than meets the eye.”

Sbrocco says she invoked movie stars because women “focus on taste and style” in choosing a wine. Unlike men, she said, “They don’t care if a wine has a 92 score. They want to know, ‘Is it sexy? Is it zippy?’ ”

I asked Sbrocco what she thought of O’Brien’s wine and his marketing effort to women.

Not surprisingly, she said she thought his concept and his wines were “great.” Maybe that’s because he looks a little like Ray Romano in black leather pants.

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David Shaw can be reached at david.shaw@latimes.com.